Magyar
OBOE-LIKE SHAWM (tárogató)
Description of the Schunda Tárogató
Daniel Seidenberg, Mal Harris, and Leonardo Fuks
The tárogató is a single-reed, conical-bore woodwind, created in Hungary around the turn of the century shortly after the invention of the saxophone. The tárogató is sometimes called the national instrument of Hungary (on the other hand, so is the cimbalom). The mouthpiece and reed are roughly similar to those on a clarinet, but although newer tárogató mouthpieces take a clarinet reed, the actual mouthpieces are not interchangeable. The fingering is also roughly similar to an Albert-system clarinet, but because of the conical bore, the tárogató breaks into the upper register an octave higher like a saxophone, rather than the musical twelfth of the clarinet. Thus the thumb hole and two upper keys used to bridge the lower part of the upper register are omitted. The tárogató also has an extra key down on the bell, operated by the right thumb.
Because of the conical bore, tuning a tárogató by sliding the mouthpiece like for a clarinet will not produce good results. The various harmonics will not change together with the mouthpiece position, so that the instrument rapidly becomes “balky” or difficult to play. If your instrument does not play at the pitch you desire, consult a highly qualified and experienced saxophone mouthpiece expert, since saxophones have the same difficulty.
History
The modern tárogató was invented in the 1890’s, either at the Schunda Factory [ref 2,3] or the Stowasser Factory [ref 1]. My personal guess is that the founder of Stowasser invented the tárogató while working at the Schunda factory. Both factories made all of the early tárogatók. In either case, the story [ref 1] of the inventor being offended by the large holes and metal construction of the newly invented (circa 1842) saxophone probably contains some truth.
